FIG. 13, (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2000-81471, 2001-296127) shows the construction of a conventional MI element.
In the central part of the MI element is a magnetic sensitive body made from amorphous metal wire. The magnetic sensitive body is set on a terminal board, around which an electromagnetic coil is wound. The conventional MI element uses an electromagnetic coil ranging in diameter from 1 to 5 mm, and the usual size of an MI element is width 3 mm, height 2 mm, length 4 mm.
The above mentioned conventional MI element was able to achieve some degree of high sensitivity, miniaturization, and low power consumption when applied as a magnetic sensor. However, inadequate miniaturization in high performance magnetic sensors was a problem.
In the present field, further miniaturization of high efficiency magnetic sensors (hereafter MI sensor) using this MI element has presently become necessary. However, because conventional MI elements were constructed with an electromagnetic coil wound external to the terminal board, the size of MI elements was necessarily large. Therefore, further miniaturization of MI elements was sought.